Improvement in graining or imitating wood



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN JOHNSTON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN GRAINING OR IMITATI NG .WOOD.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 135,039, dated January 21, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN JOHNSTON, of the city, county, and State of New York, have inventedan Improved Process for Graining or Imitating Wood, also for transferring figures and making imprints, &c., of which the following is a specification:

I take a glass plate of any desired size and thickness; but I prefer a thick even plate when I desire to imitate wood or graining. I design on such a plate with pencil and brush with the aid. of asphaltum, wax, grease, or fatty substances such figures and configurations which are seen on the surface of planed wood. When properly dried I pour fluoric acid, or any chemical which will produce etching on glass, on such a prepared plate that will etch into the glass not covered with the aforesaid asphaltum, wax, grease, or fatty substances. I prefer to use asphaltum, although wax, grease, or fatty substances may be used. I also prefer to use fluoric acid for the purpose of etching, although other chemicals may be used for the same purpose. When the etchingis produced sufficiently deep on the uncovered part of the plate I rinse and clean the plate with spirits or turpentine and sand, and spread the whole surface over evenly with oil-graining color. I then take a scraper made of soft wood, planed perfectly even, and draw this piece of wood over the plate, which operation leaves the colors only on the etched'spots. I then roll a printers roller (the circumference and width of which are equal to the length and width of the prepared part .of the plate) over the whole surface of the prepared plate,,by which operation the color deposited in the etched part of the plate is transferred to the printers roller. This so prepared roller I roll over the surface I desire to grain or imitate graining on, be it wood, metal, paper, or any other substance or composition.

By this process I obtain plates from which any desired number of impressions can be taken quickly, cheaply, and readily, even by unexperienced hands.

The whole art and peculiarities of the experienced grainer can be expended on a series of plates without requiring his time or services in copying, and thus makes this process the cheapest, quickest, and most perfect mode of graining or imitating wood yet invented.

The same process as here described in preparing the plates is also employed when I desire to transfer a figure or make an imprint on paper or any other substance, with the difference that I etch out the places I do not wish transferred. This so prepared plate I mount on wood-that is, I place a piece of wood of the same thickness as the length of type on the back of such a prepared wood plate, to which itmay be cemented or screwed; and print from it in the ordinary manner.

Having thus fully described my invention, I desire to claim- The process of producing the type of a design for imitations of wood, in the manner substantially as described in my specification.

JOHN JOHNSTON.

WVitnesses a RICHARD GERNER.

FRANKLIN BARRITT. 

